Automotive X Prize Draws 25 Teams So Far

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Automotive X Prize Draws 25 Teams So Far

The race to build the world's first mass-production car capable of triple-digit fuel economy is rolling right along, with 25 teams betting they can win the $10 million prize for building a super-efficient, super-clean car people would actually buy.

The Progressive Automotive X Prize has drawn competitors from around the world, and the teams include college kids and India's largest automaker. The cars they're building use every drivetrain technology short of hydrogen fuel cells, and most of them look like something you'd want to drive.

With three weeks left until the registration deadline, X Prize officials expect to announce a few last-minute entries. Until then, here's a run-down of who's who and what's what.

First, a quick primer on the rules, which span 70 pages. The cars have to be production-capable, meaning they meet all federal safety guidelines, it must be possible to build 10,000 of them annually within reasonable costs, they have to be desirable (granted, that's a highly subjective criteria) and the teams must have a viable business plan for producing and selling 10,000 vehicles annually by 2014.

The vehicles must deliver at least 100 MPGe. That's shorthand for miles per gallon equivalent, which measures fuel efficiency in terms of the energy equivalent of one U.S. gallon of gasoline. It's basically a means of comparing apples to apples when you've got electric cars, diesel-electric hybrids and other technologies competing together. Electric vehicles must have a range of 200 miles for the "mainstream" class - defined as a car resembling your typical five-passenger-compact - and 100 for the anything-goes "experimental" class.

As for emissions, total well-to-wheels CO2 production can't exceed 200 grams per kilometer. For the sake of comparison, the Toyota Prius produces 114 g/km at the tailpipe.

The prize will be awarded sometime next year following a series of competitions based on real-world driving conditions. Interest form would-be Henry Fords, Preston Tuckers and Malcolm Bricklins has been running high. Since you can't tell the players without a program, we'll provide one running down the 20 teams the X Prize folks have identified so far. We've included those photos were we can.

Adiabatic is a New York based firm whose stated goal is “To Create a new automobile engine that increases average mileage by 100%, and to make this technology available to the automotive industry.” OK, that should be easily done.

They refer to their car as “the hybrid’s hybrid” and stress that there are three focus areas that can enhance the efficiency of traditional automobiles. The motive force (the engine), transforming the force into movement (the drivetrain), and the resistance to the movement (aerodynamics, rolling resistance and vehicle weight). They'll have to make big improvements to each of these areas if they want to get 100 mpg from a traditional vehicle.

These guys are probably the early favorites to take the prize, since they've got a pre-production model of the 2e and plan to begin putting them in driveways in October. Their raindrop shaped three wheeler catches the eye, but not the wind, and Aptera promises triple-digit MPGe and range of 100 miles from a car that'll cost somewhere between $25,000 and $45,000. Although currently listed on the X-Prize site as a hybrid, so far as we know Aptera's only got a battery electric vehicle lined up.

Photo: Aptera Motors.

3. Avion

Washington

Vehicle Name: Avion (shown above)

Fuel Type: Diesel

Class: Alternative

These guys are among the most seasoned on the grid, having pulled the sheet of their first car in 1984. The lightweight, aerodynamic and very fuel-efficient sports car set the Guinness world record for fuel economy in 1986, returning an average of 103.7-mpg during a run from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. Nothing much came of the car though because no one was concerned with fuel economy back then. But Avion says "the time is right" to bring the car back, so they've installed a diesel engine that averages more than 100 mpg. That kind of fuel economy and scissor doors? Sweet.

Florida based BDCOTSRUS, which is both unpronounceable and spelled with all caps for some reason, describes itself as "a horizontally integrated group of engineers, consultants, and friends that share a common goal of increasing the efficiency of an existing design." We're not sure what that means exactly, but this horizontally integrated group is using off-the-shelf parts to modify a 1996 Saturn. They haven't offered many details, but it sounds like they're gonna make it a diesel-electric hybrid.

Photo: BDCOTSRUS.

5. EDDISON 2 – MASS MANAGEMENT

Virginia (USA)

Vehicle Name: TBA

Fuel Type: Gasoline or Natural Gas

Class: Mainstream

Not a lot of info available on these guys, who don't have a website. The team consists of a real estate developer, a pair of engineers and an aerodynamics fellow at Northrop Grumman.

This Canadian firm specializes in hybrid drivetrain system engineering and integration, so naturally it's building a gas-electric car for the X Prize. It believes it can vastly improve the efficiency of such systems, and it promises to design a car that delivers triple-digit fuel economy and a wildly futuristic appearance without sacrificing comfort or practicality.

Enerva is keeping its car under wraps for now but promise it "will be unveiled soon." All they'll say is it uses a lightweight body and a gas-electric hybrid drivetrain with an engine that features variable compression ratios.

Kinetic Vehicles took first place in Escape from Berkeley, the madcap alt-fuel race from Berkeley, Calif., to Las Vegas, so we know its car works. They've stuffed a turbocharged 1100-cc Kubota diesel engine into a Lotus 7 - something that guarantees them an Autopia shout-out win or lose - that runs on diesel, biodiesel or veggie oil.

Kinetix Motors, besides having a name that’s too-clever by half, has set an ambitious goal for the E4, promising to deliver an attractive, safe and practical - yet sporty - car for less than $25,000. Preliminary specs call for a 25-horsepower all-aluminum diesel engine mated to a pair of wheel-mounted 40 horsepower electric motors. Claimed acceleration is zero to 60 in 6.1 seconds and a top speed of 95 mph.

The Air Car is, as its name implies, powered by compressed air. The technology was developed by the French firm Motor Development International and licensed by Zero Pollution Motors. a) that will make and run an urbo-pod shaped car that runs on compressed air. The companies are bristling with serous engineering talent and dead serious about using compressed air - and it's managed to get India's Tata motors interested. What makes it especially interesting is the project is headed by Guy Negre, a Formula One and aircraft engineer.

Millmac Corp., which sounds like a defense contractor in Pynchon novel, does a lot of work repairing ships and marine engines. But it claims to have developed a bolt-on method of increasing the fuel efficiency of internal combustion engines by 50 percent. Millmac doesn't provide any details, and the link provided by the X Prize folks doesn't work. But the company says its entry will be a conventional automobile modified with the Millmac fuel system and other internal components.

Nelson TYWA Power Corp. isn't building a car, it's modifying one. The company claims to have developed "a radical new heat engine" that has fewer than 20 percent of the moving parts found in a conventional engine and "cuts your fuel costs in half." It also says the technology can be installed in any vehicle "to achieve at least 100 mpg in a full-size SUV with almost no emissions."

The Green Giant doesn't even have to roll and these guys win the prize for best team name. The electric truck purportedly generates power from sources ranging from an on-board diesel generator to "weight-exploiting hydraulic shocks" and photovoltaic cells. Sounds like a Chevrolet Volt crossed with a Swiss army knife. Physics Lab says the truck currently gets at least 50 mpg on batteries augmented by the diesel generator, but it expects to bump that figure to 100 mpg with other energy sources.

The five members of Red Light Racing are active-duty Navy and Marine pilots, and they've all graduated from Naval Test Pilot School, which makes us reluctant to bet against them. They're modding a first-gen Honda Insight similar to the one in the pic above, tossing the hybrid's gasoline engine in favor of a diesel. They're using off-the-shelf components and, interestingly, VW components.

Synergy Innovations is slapping an electric drivetrain in a Mini similar to the one above, which probably seemed like a revolutionary idea before Mini decided to slap an electric drivetrain in a Mini. It's another team without a website and not much detail at the X-Prize site, but the British team says it wants to develop "a compelling electric car designed primarily for urban use" and prove that "electric vehicles can be high-performance and fun to drive."

India's largest automaker is, so far, the only major automaker to sign up for the X Prize, and it's bringing two cars to the contest. It'll field an Indica Vista Hybrid (the standard Indica is pictured above) in the mainstream class and an all-electric version of its adorable Nano microcar in the alternative. Tata's entry is significant because it owns Land Rover and Jaguar, so the technology underpinning these cars could make its way to showrooms on this side of the world.

TTW Italia is bringing a three-wheeler that looks like a Piaggio MP3 crossed with a BMW C1 with a compressed natural gas engine. to the competition. TTW calls it a "Personal Commuting Vehicle," and it provides the light weight (and superior fuel economy) of a motorcycle and (some of) the safety of a car. TTW says the drivetrain provides as many as 40 miles of zero-emissions motoring from the two front wheel-mounted electric motors.

Western Washington University's Vehicle Research Institute has been playing with automotive technology for more than 30 years, and its cars have competed raced everywhere from Bonneville to Pikes Peak. This is the school's 45th car, and it takes a shotgun approach, using a platform easily adapted to everything from gasoline to biomethane. The structure is made of composite materials for light weight, and the passenger compartment features a safety cell for crash protection. It's all very innovative stuff. It also looks like an early-60s custom, which is a big plus.